Experienced Traveler

I am currently in the Salt Lake airport on my 5 hour layover. I wish I was coming home on better terms, but I am grateful to have to ability to be with my family this weekend and attend my grandma's funeral. I left Torino at 4am this morning (currently 22 hours ago) to catch the bus to the airport. Flew from Torino to Paris (I always wanted to go to Paris... hopefully next time I'll leave the airport) and then from Paris to Salt Lake on a 11.5 hour flight. Unfortunately, it was my daytime, so i wasn't able to sleep much and the movie system was not working (thank goodness for ipods!). I'll finally arrive in Spokane at 8:30pm Mountain time (5:30 am Torino time...) What a long day! It is weird to be able to understand what everyone is saying around me. And not be nervous about asking questions of workers for fear that they won't be able to understand! I've met some really nice people on flights today and experienced customs for the first time.

I've also come to realize how lucky I am to have such great roommates. At 4am this morning, Youn got up to walk with me to the bus stop (20 min walk) because she didn't want me going alone and wanted to see me off with a hug! She even made me vegetable soup this morning, because "that's what we have in Korea in the morning". Kate left me a bag with a pastry, chocolate, strawberries, orange juice, and yogurt for my travels and a nice card reminding me to come back to Italy :) People like this make me realize I need to remember to show compassion everyday; it's easy to forget how much the little things mean to someone having a hard time.